Velma Barfield, Death Row Granny

The First Woman in the US to be Executed by Lethal Injection

Sep 15, 2009

Velma Barfield may have looked like a kind hearted granny, but in truth she was a callous serial killer, convicted by a jury after deliberating for just an hour.

Margie Velma Bullard was born on October 23rd 1932 in South Carolina. Her childhood was spent growing up near Fayetteville, North Carolina. She was the 2nd of 9 children to Murphy and Lillian Bullard.

Velma's father was a tobacco and cotton farmer but soon after Velma's birth the family lost the farm and moved to Fayetteville. Whether this is what caused Murphy Bullard to become abusive isn't known, but he thought nothing of physically abusing Velma while her mother did nothing to stop the beatings she endured.

Barfield's First Marriage and Parenthood

Velma escaped her tormented childhood by marrying young. At the age of just 17, Velma married Thomas Burke in 1949. At first the marriage was relatively happy and the couple had 2 children together. In December 1951 their first child, a boy, Ronald Thomas arrived. Less than 2 years later, a daughter, Kim was born in September 1957. Velma was a devoted mother, indeed friends and neighbours complimented the young couple on their good parenting skills. However, in 1963 Velma developed gynaecological problems and had to have a hysterectomy. Complications following the surgery which led to Velma suffering chronic back pain, which eventually led to drug addiction in an attempt to alleviate her symptoms

In 1965, Thomas Burke was involved in a car accident and suffered a head injury causing concussion. Severe headaches caused him to start to drink and the couple found themselves arguing, sometimes violently and eventually Velma was hospitalised with stress. On her release Velma started to visit a number of different doctors in order to obtain prescriptions to feed her valium addiction.

One day, after particularly heavy drinking session Burke passed out. Velma and the children returned home find a fire had broken out and Thomas Burke had died of smoke inhalation.

A Mystery Illness Strikes Barfield's Mother

The following year Velma married widower, Jennings Barfield. Barfied was not a healthy man, suffering from diabetes, emphysema and heart disease. Unfortunately the marriage was short lived, less than a year after the nuptial ceremony, Jennings Barfield died from complications of his heart condition. Velma returned to live with her parents but her father died of lung cancer shortly afterwards. Approximately 4 years later, Velma's mother Lillian Bullard was taken ill. She was stricken with chronic diarrhoea and vomiting but thankfully recovered a few days later.

Anyone watching Velma from afar might think she was very unlucky in her personal relationships as the man she was dating at the time was tragically killed in a car crash. Things seemed to go from bad to worse, when, just a few months later, Lillian Bullard had a reoccurrence of the severe vomiting and diarrhoea. This time she wasn't so lucky and died over the Christmas period of 1974 within hours of being rushed to hospital.

Caring for the Elderly

Less than 2 years after the death of her mother, Velma found a new vocation in her life, caring for the elderly. In 1976 she was employed to look after Montgomery Edwards and his wife, Dollie. Within a month of Velma taking over the elderly couple's care, Dollie was dead, having suffered with symptoms similar to that of Lillian Bullard.

The following year, 1977, Velma was employed to care for 76 year old Record Lee who was recovering from a fractured leg. On June 4th 1977 Record's husband, John Henry started to complain of severe chest and stomach pains which were accompanied by chronic diarrhoea and vomiting. He died shortly afterwards.

By now Velma was courting again. This time she was dating Stuart Taylor, a relative of Dollie Edwards. The relationship wasn't destined to last long as Velma had started to steal from him. Fearing he had discovered what she had been doing, Velma poisoned Stuart Taylor by mixing an arsenic based rat poison and adding it to his beer. Stuart Taylor died on February 3rd 1978. A post-mortem was carried out and the toxicology tests showed that Taylor had arsenic in his body. Velma Barfield was charged with his murder and as a result of their subsequent investigations, police exhumed the body of Jennings Barfield, Velma's 2nd husband. Toxicology tests on his remains detected arsenic in his body.

Now charged with two murders, Velma confessed killing her mother, Lillian Bullard, John Henry in 1977 and also Dollie Edwards in 1976.

Death Row

While awaiting the appeal of her sentence on death row, Velma 'found' Christ and became a born again Christian. She spent all her time ministering to other prisoners. So devout were her beliefs, and the depth of her involvement within the Christian ministry that an attempt was made to commute her death sentence to that of life imprisonment with no parole. Her appeal to the federal court was denied and as a result Barfield instructed her team to abandon their plans to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Before her execution, Velma Barfield released a statement which read, ' I know that everyone has gone through a lot of pain, all the families connected, and I am sorry and I want to thank everybody who has been supporting me all these years.'

A final request by Velma's legal team to Governor Jim Hunt for clemency was rejected. Velma Barfield was convicted of committing five murders. She was executed by lethal injection on November 2nd 1984, aged 52. She was executed at the Central prison in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The copyright of the article Velma Barfield, Death Row Granny in Criminals/Outlaws is owned by Lynda Osborne. Permission to republish Velma Barfield, Death Row Granny in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.